Introduction to 1.4.8: Sāmaññaphalasuttaṃ (Pointing out the Way to One who is Lost)

“abhikkantaṃ, bhante, abhikkantaṃ, bhante!”

This formula -“abhikkantaṃ, bhante, abhikkantaṃ, bhante” - is often used to express one’s happiness and satisfaction about the explanations of the Buddha and one’s surrender. Here it is expressed by king Ajātasattu after he finally met the Buddha. After his patricide enticed by Devadatta he had been rest-and sleepless, his visits to many learned ascetics of that time could not satisfy him so he finally couldn’t resist his desire to meet the Buddha. Although extremely suspicious he followed the invitation of his physician Jīvaka to guide him to the Mangogrove, which Jīvaka had offered the Saṅgha and where the Buddha had stayed during the rains. Ajātasattu had already placed the following question: “What are the fruits for someone who has left the householders life, visible here and now?” to six other famous ascetics, but never received a satisfying answer. When then asking the Buddha that very same question, Buddha conveyed to him the benefits of a moral life leaving aside unwholesome acts of body, deed and word, performing wholesome ones and devoting oneself to the different states of meditation up to the attainment of final liberation.

May more and more people get inspiration from these examples and be able to leave aside unwholesome acts of body, deed and word, and able to perform only wholesome ones and devote themselves to the different states of meditation.

Pāli lesson (with audio) 1.4.8

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